Ashes, the United States "China Action Plan" lost the lawsuit again

The US "Science" magazine website on September 26, original topic: In cases of scientists who are related to China, federal fraud accused the earth collapse

The three federal courts ruled last week that the US government did too much in accused American scholars in accordance with the controversial "China Action Plan".

Lawyers of the US Department of Justice previously believed that Chinese chemist Tao Feng, Materials Scholar Cheng Zhengdong, and mathematician Xiao Mingqing who intended to fund the research on the US federal agencies concealed their relationships with Chinese institutions, endangered (US) national security and deceived the United States. government. However, last week, judges in Kansas, Texas, and Illinois either announced some of the most serious allegations, or made relatively loose judgments on lighter violations. One judge overthrew the crime of fraud against Tao, and another judge revoked the nine fraud charges of Cheng Cheng. The third judge sentenced Xiao Hulong instead of imprisonment on the grounds that he did not report a foreign bank account.

Legal experts say that the reason for the US Department of Justice to constitute a deception funding agency is untenable. Margaret Lewis, a legal professor at the University of Seaton Hall, said: "These (results) show that the government's (basic) basis for cases is problematic." She questioned Criminal convictions of administrative violations, "Prosecutors' main responsibilities are just righteousness, not conviction."

In 2018, the Trump administration launched the "China Action Plan" to try to combat economic espionage. The plan leads to allegations of more than 20 academic scientists. Most of them have Chinese descent, and civil rights groups say this highlights prejudice against Asians. Later, the prosecution revoked allegations of many people or failed to win the jury's ruling.

Last week, the US Department of Justice suffered new setbacks. In Tao's case, the regional judge Julie Robinson took unusual measures to revoke his three fraudulent judgments. Tao's lawyer Peter Zidenberg believes: "In any other (similar) cases, the US government will not think of raising fraud. But once Chinese scientists and anything related to China are involved, (prosecutor) is not related to China, but not the prosecutor) Use the usual evaluation program. "

Robinson's ruling echoed similar conclusions of other "China Action Plan" cases. For example, in September 2021, the US judge Thomas Varan announced that Hu Anding, a mechanical engineer at the University of Tennessee, was accused of fraud from six crimes of the National Aerospace Administration. Varan wrote in a 52 -page ruling: No rational jury will think that Hu Wei disclosed his relationship with Chinese universities ...

It is not clear how many "China Action Plan" cases are currently. The U.S. Department of Justice announced in February that it was renamed the plan because it had a chilling effect (and) in the United States that it was unbearable and prejudiced. " But Zidenberg said he had not seen any substantial changes in the US government's "resistance to nation-national threats". (Author Jeffrey Melvis, translated by Qiao Heng) ▲

- END -